Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Ever since the very first Android “smart phone” many years ago, I’ve owned more phones (and tablets) than I can recall. Looking at a few recent phones, I’ve owned Galaxy Note 3 & 4, Galaxy S 4 & 5, LG G2/G3/G4, Nokia 1520, Xperia Z Ultra (6.45”), and my current daily driver, the Google Nexus 6 (5.96”). Needless to say, I’m familiar with many models, big & small. :) So let’s take that experience and see how the latest low budget phone from Blu fares. PROS: + Excellent value as a phone and/or tablet + Nice looking 7” IPS Display + Very bright screen + Nearly stock Android Lollipop 5.0 + Great Battery Life + Smooth UI Performance + Expandable Storage + Decent build quality + Comfortable to hold, despite it’s size + Looks more expensive than it is + Factory Unlocked for GSM CONS: - Low resolution cameras & no flash - Mediocre sounding single speaker & voice quality - Display only 600x1024 (169 ppi) - Limited band support (i.e. no LTE) - Some light bleed - Loose Power/Volume Buttons - No accessories at launch SPECS: Since this listing excludes a few important details, I’ll note them here: * 7” IPS+ 600x1024 (169 ppi) Display * 1.3GHz MediaTek MT8382 Quad-Core CPU w/ MALI 400 GPU * 8GB Internal memory / 1GB RAM / MicroSD storage expandable up to 64GB * 5MP Front & VGA Rear Camera (No Flash) * HSPA + 21Mbps / 3G (aka 4G) Band Support Only- No LTE anywhere * 3450mAh Non-Removable Battery * Full-Size SIM Required for GSM Voice/Data (i.e. T-Mobile/AT&T) * NOT compatible with CDMA Carriers (i.e. Sprint/Verizon) * Includes Headphones, Screen Protector, 2 Amp Charger, and 3ft Cable DESIGN For the first time, I’m almost comfortable using the word “phablet” to describe this device. It’s got the screen of a traditional tablet, yet has full voice/data functionality in a slimmed down package. I’m going to just call it a big phone. First, let’s briefly talk about it’s size. This is a big phone, easily dwarfing my 6” Nexus 6. But it’s also a really small tablet. Compared to a Nexus 7, it’s noticeably smaller in every dimension. While you won’t be doing a lot of one-handed use, it’s still compact enough to fit in the pockets of my less-tight fitting pants. That's as far I'll on about size; it is what it is! The phone has a mostly plastic construction, with bezels that look like they are higher quality than they are. The back has a nice rubberized texture that makes for a nice place to hold. You’ve got a front ear piece that doubles as the single mono speaker. Interestingly, the headphone and mico-USB port are on the top. Power and volume rocker switch are on the right side, towards the top. They feel a bit loose and have some play to them. And the micro-SD and Full-Size SIM card slot are covered by a door that requires a tiny flat-head screwdriver to remove. Tool included. And yes, I did say good ‘ol Full Size SIM card. You can buy adapters. While the textures and coloring won’t fool you into thinking this phone is made of high quality metals, it still looks nice. And the phone has a good solid feel. If you give it a firm twist, there is some expected flex. But no noises… yet. PERFORMANCE As you can see from the specs, this phone has a MediaTek SoC with Mali 400 GPU. This CPU is based on the ARM A7 architecture, most commonly associated with the Snapdragon 400, and used with some Octa Core variants. So yes, this is rather dated technology, except do note this is a Quad Core CPU. Not dual core as the original A7’s. It also has the benefit of running cool and being thrifty with power usage. We’ll discuss more on battery life later. That’s all great, but how does it perform? Thanks to a nearly stock Lollipop 5.0 OS, it runs pretty darn good. Within the UI, things are smooth, fluid, and little-to-no lag/stutter is noticeable there. However, when you start opening/switching apps, the slower CPU & limited memory will make itself known. That’s simply unavoidable with these specs. With that said, it’s still relatively minor, and overall, runs better than expected. BENCHMARKS & GAMING While I prefer to focus on real-world performance and don’t usually put much weight behind synthetic benchmarks, here are a few anyways: 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme: 1922 AnTuTu Benchmark v5.7.1: 19590 Geekbench 3 - Single Core: 363 / Multi-Core: 1196 Not the best numbers, but how do games run? So far, they’ve all run just fine. Most games will lower details and resolution to keep them running smooth. As a result, you may see some grainy video or more pixels than you’re used to for high-end titles. Also, because this is a “less common” MediaTek processor, you could run into issues where a game isn’t compatible (i.e. SimCity BuildIt). Temple Run, for example, ran great. Noticed some grainy images at the title screen, but that’s it. Asphalt 8 also ran smooth & was easy to control, but it’s much more obvious the details have been pushed way down. OS & FEATURES As noted above, we are looking at a nearly stock Android 5.0 Lollipop OS. It’s currently still only 5.0, it says it’s upgradable, but no word on when that will actually happen. Of course, just being 5.0 is good enough for now. In particular as there is very little bloatware installed. You’ve got some Amazon stuff you’ll need to hide, they’ve got Opera, an FM Radio, Google Apps, BLU Help app, and not much else. The OS provides some audio profiles, reboot/airplane mode when pressing the power button, and you can even scheduled power on/off via the Settings menu. They do include the TouchPal keyboard as default. This one is somewhat new to me, although I’m already finding it’s auto-correct to be surprisingly aggressive and incorrect many times. No worries though. It’s easy to disable. DISPLAY After using so many Quad HD IPS and OLED displays, it’s a bit noticeable when jumping down to a lower resolution display. In particular, this 7” IPS+ 600x1024 screen. However, it’s not as bad as it sounds. First, this is an IPS display. The colors are nice and vibrant. Black levels won’t blow you away, but they’re pretty good. As with many LCD’s these day, the white balance is way on the cool side, which can appear as a light blue tint. Light bleed, while minor, is certainly noticeable. In particular when watching movies with a black background, in a darker room. Viewing angles are acceptable. Very little color shift; you’re mostly going to deal with notable dimming as you view off center. Brightness is way up there. Indoors I rarely needed to go past 30-40%. Which is actual brightness, since there is no pesky ambient light sensor that I need to turn off. Although I do wish it got dimmer. In a completely dark room, sometimes I found it to be a little brighter than I’d like even at the lowest setting. Back to the low resolution. How does it really look? In daily use, it actually looks just fine. The only situation it’s really an issue is when you try to look at a full desktop website in portrait mode. It’s here where tiny text and some images can look a blurry. You can of course zoom in, switch to landscape, or stick with mobile versions of websites. Otherwise reading documents, flipboard, & e-books all look great and are quite pleasant to read on a larger screen. CAMERA We’ll keep this one short. It’s a 5MP rear camera and VGA (640x480) on the front. There is no flash. Basically, quality isn’t great for either one of these. Even with good lighting, the images will appear soft, grainy, and noticeably low detail. Clearly this was one area that took the biggest hit to keep the cost so low. BATTERY For a large 7” phone, a 3450mAh battery sounds like it would be on the small side. And if this had a ton of pixels and super fast SoC to push, it would be. But a low resolution screen combined with a very energy efficient CPU, and it’s really not that at all. So there’s your upside to low specs! In my testing, I was able to achieve 7 hours 22 minutes of Screen-On Time, with about 12% battery life remaining. That was with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS all enabled. Screen at about 40%, which could have gone lower for indoor use, but I decided to keep it bright. There was lots of web surfing, reading flipboard, and well over an hour of video playback with both YouTube and MXPlayer, each. Charging was also quick, getting up to nearly half capacity within about an hour or so. Once again, your results will absolutely vary. SOUND & VOICE Interestingly, this phone shares the ear-piece for main speaker use. That speaker grill you see on the front/top of the phone is the only speaker on this device. Yes, it’s the same one used for voice calls. The mic is way at the bottom. The speaker sadly doesn’t get very loud, sounds tiny at higher volumes, and doesn’t have much detail. It’s simply adequate. Given it’s movie watching aspirations, I really do wish it had another speaker at the bottom for stereo. The microphone also isn’t the best quality. Test calls resulted in the same mediocre ear-piece sound quality and on the other end, my voice was slightly distorted or muffled at times. Even if I got closer to the microphone, it didn’t change all that much. Although both parties were still able to hear each other and carry on a conversation. MISSING HARDWARE & BAND SUPPORT You’re already expecting a few things to get cut when trying to hit a low price point on a big phone. So what are some notable items I haven’t already discussed? First, there is only 802.11n 2.4GHz support for WiFi. No 5Ghz or AC support. It’s still plenty fast, hitting over 40mbps on my router; it won’t break any records. No NFC. But we do still have GPS & Bluetooth of course. No notification light. No camera flash. With only 8GB of internal storage & 1GB of RAM, you could run into some limitations. Although for memory, that usually just means apps won't stay cached in memory as long, and may take longer to open than usual. And with low storage you'll want to keep as much on the MicroSD card as you can. You've already lost around 2.5GB in system data alone. Most apps are getting updated to support SD card installation. Plus, there is an option in Settings to change the "default" storage location. Once again, up to the app to cooperate. And as noted in specs, there are only a few GSM bands for HSPA+ 21 / 3G. Also commonly referred to as 4G by some carriers. That’s also the slower HSPA+ connection. Which on AT&T in the Austin, TX area, meant around 4Mbps down & a little over 1Mpbs up. Your results will vary. It’s not blazing, but it will do for most internet tasks. To clarify, there is no LTE support on either the Global or US (my phone) variant. And will only work with a GSM carrier, such as AT&T or T-Mobile. CONCLUSION The Blu Studio 7.0 II fits into what may seem like an odd category for many folks, in certain regions. But for others, it makes perfect sense to combine your tablet & phone needs into one cost effective gadget. If you’re able to comfortably carry around such a large phone and don’t have a need for high-end (or mid-range) specs, I think you’ll be very satisfied with this one. Bottom line, it has most of the important features needed to keep it useful and they didn’t get too carried away on the budget cutting board. Although with that said, I’d love to see what Blu could do in a higher-end category. If they even simply upgraded to a 1080p display, faster SoC, decent stereo speakers, and keep a fair price, it would be impressive. In either case, all things considered, this one is definitely recommended.